Brian Wilson RIP

takeahike · 2025-06-11T17:33:43+00:00

Brian Wilson, Beach Boys visionary leader and summer’s poet laureate, dies at 82 Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ visionary and fragile leader whose genius for melody, arrangements and wide-eyed self-expression inspired Good Vibrations, California Girls, God Only Knows, I Get Around among dozens of other summertime anthems, and made him one of the world’s most influential songwriters and recording artists, has died at 82. The Beach Boys in 1964

takeahike

dave

My personal opinion of best rock song: Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode (1958)

This would be just among rock songs. Saying something is the best ever and without regard to other genres I believe is not a reasonable or accurate way to rate not only music but all forms of artistic expression, and that it’s best to have one or a few for each genre of music or each of other forms of artistic expression. Picking one or a few as best of all music or other art overall and not considering other genres or art forms like different abstracts/incarnations/persuasions of paintings or literature, etc., is comparing things that are not comparable, like apples and oranges.

dave

px_eliezer_ Secretary of the Interior James Watt tried to ban them

He was probably just letting off steam.

takeahike

My girlfriend met Brian and his wife back in the 80s or 90s while they were all taking an Astronomy class at UCLA extension. They even went out together a couple of times. She said that she could see his struggles. She also worked at a market while in college in Beverly Hills, meeting people such as Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Steve Martin–the best I ever did driving my cab in NYC in the 70s was Soupy Sales! Why didn’t I ever get to pick up John Lennon or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis? 😓😓

takeahike

Made it to the Beach Boys concert. Read all about it here. Wish you were there in Kokomo!

HooRU

takeahike My personal opinion of best rock song: Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode (1958)

This would be just among rock songs. Saying something is the best ever and without regard to other genres I believe is not a reasonable or accurate way to rate not only music but all forms of artistic expression, and that it’s best to have one or a few for each genre of music or each of other forms of artistic expression. Picking one or a few as best of all music or other art overall and not considering other genres or art forms like different abstracts/incarnations/persuasions of paintings or literature, etc., is comparing things that are not comparable, like apples and oranges.

As a lousy guitarist myself, I have to say that I grow weary of posts on social media about the best guitarists and such. There is no best, except maybe Jaco, and only because he said of himself that he was the best to Joseph Zawinul, who laughed until he heard him play.

Some insist that so and so is the best and my comment always is, have you heard that no name on this youtube page?

Wilson was certainly great and very very musical.

takeahike

HooRU

Hendrix is generally considered number one though it is of course a matter of opinion. Two opinions citing him as number one: Rolling Stone Magazine and Elias Kosmidis. Number two according to Nick Deiuliis.

HooRU

There are 10’s of thousands of amazing players, watch this video for instance:

I think with Jimi, one of the very best in history, his innovation and groundbreaking is what set him apart at the time.

Per is my favorite guitarist. My favorite band is Kaipa from Sweden.

If you watch this series you will witness the amazing skill and creativity of guys that are unknown to most of us.

HooRU

In some Eurpean countries, music is still an essential part of school. Learning in instrument raises IQs.

HooRU

This is what set apart Wilson, his creativity and sensibility, it was unique to him and it gave us enrichment and inspriation. I remember living in CA and driving on highway 1 along the coast and driving by garage bands that were shockingly good. It happened twice to me.

vaxvms

takeahike Hendrix is generally considered number one though it is of course a matter of opinion.

Is that over all genres? Pop, Rock, Country, Metal, Folk, Jazz…?

Is Hendrix better than Chet Atkins or Wes Montgomery or Tony Iommi or B.B. King?

takeahike

vaxvms

Like I said here I agree that separate music genres as well as all forms of artistic expression should not be lumped together and opinions about them should be made within each genre or other form of expression. As far as who’s the best rock guitarist (Jimi’s likely closest category) I was just posting the opinion of others that I cited. As far as my opinion, I’d say that I’m seriously underqualified to have an opinion worth a dime, since my musical ability is limited to one semester in junior high of viola lessens and a year of piano lessons that I quit after I learned to play the only song I was interested in playing, Long, Long Ago. I couldn’t even play the song today, not only because of my lack of continuing ability from 65 years ago when I learned it but have no piano to even try a repeat performance either. 🫠🫠

Sparkchaser

takeahike As far as who’s the best rock guitarist (Jimi’s likely closest category)

To me, in my opinion, that be the only category. Even in that, Sir Brian May was pretty good, as well as an astrophysicist.

real_aurgathor

vaxvms Is Hendrix better than Chet Atkins or Wes Montgomery or Tony Iommi or B.B. King?

With everything factored in, including showmanship – he’s probably the best, my list of top 25 or so would include:

Chet Atkins
Eric Clapton
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Prince
Tony Iommi
Carlos Santana
Jeff Beck
Richie Blackmore
Eddie Van Halen
Jimmy Page
Yngwie Malmsteen
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
Steve Morse
Steve Lukather
Uli Jon Roth

As for Jimi:

Jimi Hendrix lighting his Fender Stratocaster on fire at Monterey Pop is one of the most iconic images in rock history. He was a showman who played with his teeth or behind his back. But underneath all the theatrics is the true master of the instrument. His career may have lasted eight years, but musicians spend a lifetime studying his dazzling technique and improvisational genius. Hendrix sang, but he chose to make his guitar the leading voice. He popularized the use of feedback, invented his own fusion of blues and psychedelia, and influenced the development of rock, metal, funk, and much more. Hendrix was eloquent not only in his playing, but the way he spoke about playing. “The wah-wah pedal is great because it doesn’t have any notes,” he told Rolling Stone in 1968. “Nothing but hitting it straight up using the vibrato and then the drums come through and that there feels like … not depression, but that loneliness and that frustration and the yearning for something. Like something is reaching out.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-guitarists-1234814010/jimi-hendrix-39-1234814182/

takeahike

Another vote for Jimi: Jimmy Page Called This Late Icon ‘the Best Guitarist Any of Us Ever Had’

While Page has cited such blues guitarists as Muddy Waters and Elmore James among his influences, when it comes to his fellow rockers, there was one in particular who really blew him away.

In a 1975 interview Rolling Stone, Page lamented the loss of Jimi Hendrix five years earlier, praising his unique talents.

HooRU

I still say, as a very humble intermediate guitarist that, after seeing so much skill out there, and so much ingenuity and musicality, there has never been the greatest. Yes, we had the greatest generation, but with guitarists, there is a really long list of greats and a much longer list of unknowns who were equally great.

I have friends who are phenomenal and are in relative obscurity. Few rise to fame; it isn’t always enough to be “good” to get into the public’s larger eye.

Watch that series above that I posted, watch a few episodes, and your mind will be blown. Even Jimi insisted he wasn’t the best; he was very modest that way. What made him great among his attributes was that he was a beautiful guy.

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